Kingfisher Leadership News - November 2020

Kingfisher Leadership

1st November 2020

Kingfisher Leadership news THE LEADERSHIP JOURNEY The journey can be transformational. It is We encourage leaders to develop and the environment where we are tested and share vision - the ‘what if?’ rather than refined, making us ready for the destination

just settling for the ‘what is’. People need to be envisioned and encouraged The journey can be clarifying. On it, we are by the ‘what if’? if they are to take the first steps away from the ‘what is’. presented time and again with the question: However, there is a danger in ‘Is this worth it?’. How much do I vision casting that leaders want this vision to come to pass? would do well to be aware of “At this point many of His disciples and take steps to avoid: in turned away and deserted focussing on the destination, him.” (John 6:66) the picture of ‘what if?’, there The journey from is a danger of overlooking the The journey can be refining. Not ‘what is’ to ‘what everyone who sets out on the journey.

journey with us will end it with us. if?’ Is The journey is what lies one who sets out on the transformational, No between ‘what is’ and ‘what journey will be the same by the clarifying, if’?. It is:

end of it. We are refined along the way. Some ‘sacred cows’ will be refining • the desert that the slain, some ‘excess baggage’ will Israelites had to be left behind, some attitudes that cross

we thought were godly will be tested and found to not be from • the wall that they had to Him after all.

rebuild around Jerusalem

The journey is there for us to learn, to grow, • the sacrifices they had to make when to be refined. For the leader, though, the heeding Ezra’s challenge to return to journey has particular challenges. The leader the Promised Land and rebuild the is on the journey too and is, therefore, Temple

undergoing that refining process themselves, but they are also leading others on that Why does God always place a journey journey and encouraging them to grow through that transforming, clarifying, refining between the ‘what is’ and the ‘what process. It can be a tough journey for a if’? leader!

1

Kingfisher Leadership

Points along the way and how a leader should respond: Don’t forget the personal journey.

If you can’t lead yourself, you can’t lead others. You are either going to grow as a disciple and as a leader, or you are going to stagnate. You are not going to stand still.

The journey you are leading others on will only be as successful as the journey you are leading yourself on.

Recognise the important balance of big picture vision and small wins.

If all that is focussed on is the end result, then people are going to get disheartened early on in the process. The end will seem no nearer than when you first saw it for a long time! The journey is made up of a whole series of ‘small wins’ - community growth, faith steps, discipleship maturity as the result of setbacks and so on. Celebrate the wins and see them for what they are: vital steps along the journey.

1st November 2020

Understand and recognise the ‘low points’ in a journey • When the cost first becomes apparent

• When the journey is halfway done

• When reversals hit and people start wondering where is God in all this?

• When team mates abandon us

Leadership steps to manage the journey: • Refocus when you hit a low point (Nehemiah 4:14a)

• Recognise that on this journey, the end does not justify the means. The point of the journey is to get us ready for the destination, not to compromise in order to reach the destination (Nehemiah 5:1 13)

• Trust through a personal walk of integrity, through clear and accurate communication, (Nehemiah 5:14-18)

• Realise that people need motivation that touches their personal lives (Nehemiah 4:14b).

The Exodus - the epic 40-year journey that took the Hebrews from being slaves in Egypt to entry into their own land as free people with a glorious future awaiting them.

The Exodus - more than just a journey, this was a transformational experience that would forever define the identity of that nation.

Why did it take then 40 long years and what were the lessons they learned along the way?

This was the journey that not only took the people out of slavery, but more importantly, took slavery out of the people. What are the lessons they learned along the way and how does God take us on a similar journey today, as He transforms us from being slaves to sin, to being ready to enter the ‘Promised Land’ of Heaven?

Available in PDF format and as a printed book from kingfisher.org.uk/product-category/books 2

Come to receive a fresh touch from